Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Sreelatha A. Subramanyam; David Beams; James K. Nelson

2015 ASEE Zone III Conference (Gulf Southwest – Midwest – North Midwest Sections) ENHANCING ON-LINE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION THROUGH A VIRTUAL LABORATORY Sreelatha A. Subramanyam1, David Beams1, and James K. Nelson1 1 College of Engineering, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas, USAAbstract On-line education is utilized extensively and has been found to be effective in a multitude ofsubject areas, including engineering education. However, for on-line education to be fully effective inengineering education, a means must be developed to provide on-line students with

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

R. Joe Stanley; Stuart W. Baur

student careerchoices. Survey results from 120 current and graduated Missouri S&T (S&T) students arepresented. Survey results indicated that: 1) students taking PLTW courses felt better preparedfor their S&T experience in terms of hands-on experience, creative problem solving, teamworkand software experience and 2) 72.5% of the student respondents recognized engineering as theiroriginal career path and that PLTW promoted their career choices.IntroductionIn recent years, there have been numerous K-12 programs to promote science, technology,engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs that have promoted the growth andinterest of science and math related fields. These STEM programs branch across a variety ofareas and grade

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Julie L. P. Jessop; Samuel Van Horne

solve ChE problems. It meets 3 times a week for 50-minuteperiods and covers material that forms the foundation for all subsequent, required ChE courses.It also provides opportunities for students to meet and work with others who will be progressingthrough the ChE curriculum over the next three years.The instructor has been teaching the lecture-based form of this course, with class sizes of 25-30students, since Fall 2008. In 2011, she also began facilitating the web-based form of thiscourse, 1 offered only in the spring and summer sessions, with an average of 13 students per year.Since Fall 2013, she has implemented a flipped version of the course, 2 with class sizes of 45-55students.In this flipped version of the course, students use the

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Goutham Chinni; Israel Belachew; Ramazan Asmatulu

biodiesel properties and train the undergraduate engineeringstudents on the renewable energy systems for their future careers.Keywords: Waste Vegetable Oil, Transesterification, Biodiesel, Byproducts, Renewable Energy,Student Training.1. Introduction1.1 General BackgroundIn order to meet the economic challenges and sustainable developments, many countries havebeen seeking low cost energy sources [1-3]. During the past half century, the demand for oil, gasand coal all around the world tremendously increased with the increasing population andeconomic growths. The United States, Russia and China together produce about 31% of theworld’s energy, but consuming 41% of the produced energies. Biodiesel is one of the options tomeet the growing demands of the

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Puteri Megat Hamari

industrial-grade IC design tools were used as the primary toolset. 1 © American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 2015 ASEE Zone III Conference (Gulf Southwest – Midwest – North Midwest Sections)This paper discusses the course content, hands-on exercises, final project design and theeffectiveness of using a state-of-the-art, industry-grade CAD tool in the introduction andinstruction of VLSI design to students.Course OutlineThe course material for EE584/484 covered everything from MOS transistor theory and CMOSprocess technology through circuit and logic design, to

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Heath Schluterman; Candace Rainwater; Leslie Massey

: 1 © American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 2015 ASEE Zone III Conference (Gulf Southwest – Midwest – North Midwest Sections) o Engineering Fundamentals  Significant Figures  Unit Conversions  Dimensional Analysis o Descriptive Statistics  Mean, Median, Range, Standard Deviation  Excel Functions: AVERAGE(),MEDIAN(), MAX(), MIN(), & STDEV() o Charts & Graphs (Excel)  Constructing Bar Graphs & Scatter Plots  Labelling: Titles, Axis Titles, Units  Trend linesThen during Introduction to

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Aleksandr Sergeyev; Nasser Alaraje; Scott Kuhl; Michael Meyer; Mark Kinney; Mark Highum

Robotics inelectrical engineering technology (EET) programs at Michigan Tech and Bay de NocCommunity College.KeywordsRobotics; STEM; Industrial Certification; Robotic SoftwareIntroductionMany existing jobs will be automated in the next 20 years, and robotics will be a major driver forglobal job creation over the next five years. These trends are made clear in a study conducted bythe market research firm, Metra Martech, “Positive Impact of Industrial Robots onEmployment”1. Many repetitive, low-skilled jobs are already being supplanted by technology.However, a number of studies have found that in the aggregate, the robotics industry is creatingmore jobs than the number of jobs lost to robots. For example, the International Federation ofRobotics (IFR

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Stuart W. Baur; R. Joe Stanley

attended the 2013 Missouri State PLTW Conference.Instructor observations from the survey indicated that: 1) hands-on projects promotereinforcement of PLTW course curricula, 2) PLTW courses provide useful college preparatoryexperiences for students and expose students to STEM related areas, and 3) school districtsreasonably support PLTW courses.IntroductionIn recent years, there have been numerous K-12 programs to promote science, technology,engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs that have promoted the growth andinterest of science and math related fields. These STEM programs branch across a variety ofareas and grade levels. Project Lead The Way (PLTW) provides STEM education curricularprograms in high schools and middle schools in

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Charles E. Baukal

even solving a problem and then evaluating the result when it has beenobtained. Some of the checks include the sign of the solution (positive or negative), the correctrange and order of magnitude, the number of significant digits, and the error bars for laboratorymeasurements. The paper discusses problem solving, critical thinking, solution reality checks,and recommendations for how to implement solution prediction and assessment.IntroductionCalls continue to be made for improving engineering education. The Phase 2 report from thatcommittee titled Educating the Engineer of 2020 1 calls for the reinvention of engineeringeducation. An important finding of that study was the importance of addressing how studentslearn in addition to what they

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Arash Jahandideh; Samaeh Aminikhangahi; Ali Salehnia; Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan

conduct a trade of between shortest pathand longest path problem. The resulting path takes both economic and environmentalperformance into account in product/process design decision making.KeywordsLCA, Lignin derivatives, Dijkstra’s algorithm, Dynamic Programming 1IntroductionLife Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-known and widely used approach to assessing thepotential environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product’s life cycle, includingraw material acquisition, production, distribution, use, and end-of-life phases [1]. Currently, lifecycle thinking plays a significant role in environmental policy making. Renowned institutionssuch as the

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Erik Mallonee; John Barkley; Ramazan Asmatulu

to retain students in engineering education and complete the degree on time.Keywords: Science Project, Energy Harvesting, Engineering Education, Student Retention.1. Introduction1.1 MotivationThis study is a continuation of a study done in the Spring and Summer of 20141 by this groupthat was related to a study done in the Spring of 2013, of which one of the members of this groupwas involved2. The results of the 2013 study show that high school students involved in thetechnology training program showed increased interest in enrolling in the College of Engineering(CoE) at Wichita State University (WSU). This promoted interest amongst the authors to furtherstudy methods to recruit and or retain students, thus sparking the 2014 study. The 2014

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Francisco Lourenco; Nian Zhang; Sasan Haghani

prediction.KeywordsRunoff prediction, water quantity prediction, time series prediction, neural networks,backpropagation learning algorithm.1. IntroductionA wide range of evidence indicates that the earth has been warming over the past century. Thiswarming is causing the melting of mountain glaciers and sea ice in many parts of the world, arise in sea levels, and changes in patterns of precipitation. Most scientists agree that these trendsare likely to continue, and to accelerate largely due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide andother “greenhouse” gases in our atmosphere. Changes in temperatures and precipitation mayimpact the availability, use, and management of water resources. Since the publication ofIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Heather McCain

manufacturing can be difficult and trying to define quality for education is equally, if notmore, difficult. Philip Crosby (1979) defined quality as “conformance to requirements”.1 RussWestcott suggests that “Quality - I’ll know it when I see it”2 is used by customers to definequality. As a student at a university, conformance to requirements typically means followingthe course syllabus and completing the assignments for the course. As an instructor, quality of astudent’s work sometimes follows the “I’ll know it when I see it.”In manufacturing standard work is used to create consistency and define quality. Standard workis defined as documented and agreed-upon procedures and practices.3 In higher education,standard work are those procedures and

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Sara E. Wilson

thepublished literature, being able to evaluate scientific literature broadly across their field ofexpertise, having the ability to do independent research, and having the ability to communicatethat research successfully through publication. Other objectives include having technical skillsin important techniques of their field, being able to supervise the research of others, and beingable to formulate novel research questions that might serve the basis of grant proposals. Somewill express a volume of work such as three peer reviewed journal publications as an objective.In Bioengineering, our goal was to select outcomes that embody these objectives. Theseoutcomes were:Graduates in PhD Bioengineering program will be able to: 1. Read, comprehend

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Steve E. Watkins

and judgment. Topical content typically includes anintroduction to principles of applied ethics with supporting examples of related engineeringsituations. This paper discusses the organization of the ethics component in a senior seminarcourse. Key topics are ethics principles in the context of the engineering profession, codes ofethics as developed by professional societies, and ethical judgment in case studies.KeywordsEthics, Profession, Case Study.IntroductionThe development of ethics knowledge and judgment is recognized as an essential part ofengineering education. ABET student outcomes include “an understanding of professional andethical responsibility” [1]. University engineering programs must address ethics education toprepare students

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Brian Sandford

including welding and metal fabrication; framing; roofing; mechanical systems includingdrain, waste, and vent, electrical and plumbing; exterior work and landscaping; interior workincluding drywall, insulation, painting, and trim; and finally employment and accident and injuryvocabulary. About one week is spent discussing the vocabulary for each subject area.After the core grammatical information has been presented in weeks 1-3, students will begin topractice speaking and using the Spanish vocabulary learned each week in one of the topic areasby explaining simple construction related tasks assigned by the instructor. They are evaluated in4 major areas which must be included in their task descriptions. They must include: 1) anappropriate greeting; 2

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Robert M. O'Connell

assessment. At the same time, the results of the midterm exams are also often used 1 © American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 2015 ASEE Zone III Conference (Gulf Southwest – Midwest – North Midwest Sections)to provide feedback that helps students improve their learning in preparation for the final exam.This is the formative component of assessment.There are pedagogical difficulties associated with using midterm exams for both formative andsummative assessment. First, learning outcomes are usually expressed in terms of what studentsshould know and be able to do

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Shawn M. Hughes; Anh Pham; Kathy Huong Nguyen; Ramazan Asmatulu

in the engineering fields.Keywords: Electrospinning, Polycaprolactone (PCL), Nanofibers, Undergraduate Students,Hands-on Training.1. IntroductionNanotechnology has a great potential to revolutionize the scientific and industrial developmentsworldwide [1]. A number of different nanoscale materials in the forms of metals and alloys,polymers, ceramics and composites can be produced using nanotechnology processes (e.g., topdown and bottom up approaches). These nanomaterials have various application capabilities thatcould greatly affect physical and chemical properties of the new materials, structural integrity,and tissue engineering, as well as research and development in engineering [2].Electrospinning is one pf the nanotechnology processes to

Collection

2015 ASEE Zone 3 Conference

Authors

Susan C. Schneider

Disciplines(WID) 1, we began to include memos, progress reports, procedure instructions and final reports,all of which are likely to be used by our students when they are in their engineering jobs,including their co-op jobs. In particular, one of the expected outcomes for all our laboratorycourses is for the students to be able to effectively communicate the objective, the designprocedure, the experimental results, and the conclusion for a particular laboratory assignment(junior level) or electronic circuit/system design project (senior level).Current Laboratory Writing AssignmentsDifferent types of writing assignments are used in the final two laboratory classes in ourprogram. In the junior level “Instrumentation Lab”, students write three or four

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jing Pang

in the projects assignedwhich were designed according to the course learning outcomes. They were evaluated afterstudent designs were collected and positive results were identified in this work.1. IntroductionCritical thinking requires the ability to analyze and evaluate information4, 5, 6. A lot of researchershave recognized the importance of critical thinking in education. How to organize active learningenvironment to enhance critical thinking among students has been one challenging and alsopassionate topic for many educators. In the field of health science, case studies were used topromote critical thinking. Life experience case examples or simulated real patient situation caseswere used by nurse educators to help students acquire critical

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bryan K. Allen; Gordon W. Romney

1 Agile Capstone Integration of Free, Disparate Cloud Services Produced a Prototype Application that Tracks Airborne Wildfire Firefighting Resources Bryan K. Allen and Gordon W. Romney School of Engineering and Computing National University, San Diego, CAAbstractA prototype application designed to leverage state-of-the art cloud computing technologies wasdeveloped as a capstone project for U.S. Defense Support to a Civilian Authority mission. Theoutcome of this paper demonstrates the Agile development and

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kevin R. Anderson; Clifford M. Stover

these type of endeavors involve the students, theengineering companies, the local community, as well as the faculty. Assessment tools andgrading rubrics used to quantify the student experiential learning are also discussed.IntroductionThe use of engineering capstone projects for undergraduate engineering education is commonin the literature. The study of Gannod et al.1 presents the concept that a capstone course ismeant to provide graduating seniors with a culminating experience that ties together theknowledge and skills that have been attained over the duration of a four-year curriculum. Inthe study of Conn and Sharpe2, the authors describe a year-long senior mechanical engineeringdesign course that is run in cooperation with industry

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Pradip Peter Dey; Gordon W. Romney; Amir Rezaei; Amelito G. Enriquez; Bhaskar Raj Sinha; Mohammad Amin

conformity and standards. With the recent advances inautomation and social changes, questions are raised about the current adequacy of theseparadigms. In the coming decades, growth of diversity of talents would be more appropriatethan conformity of skills measured primarily by multiple choice tests, because creative problemsolvers increasingly are in demand. Some of the legendary engineers, such as Steve Jobs andBill Gates were college dropouts. There are several emerging alternatives that involve distancelearning that need to be considered in order to investigate the real issues in engineering andscience education. Some of the pertinent questions about any engineering program are: (1) Howwell do the program learning outcomes, teaching practices

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Tania Martinez; Amado Flores-Renteria; Jasmine Flores; Jolani Chun; Cheng Chen; Hezareigh Ryan; Wenshen Pong; Nilgun Ozer; Hamid Shahnasser; Hamid Mahmoodi; Amelito G. Enriquez; Albert Cheng; Kwok-Siong Teh; Xiaorong Zhang

and theirdecision to pursue a civil engineering profession.1. IntroductionRecent earthquakes in California and Japan have caused significant impact on human society (20killed, $20B in direct losses during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and 5500 killed, $147B indirect losses during the 1995 Kobe earthquake). Similar earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greatercan have a more profound impact on the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Future earthquakedisaster prevention and preparation require that young professional civil engineers be trained andrecruited into the next generation workforce as part of the efforts to mitigate seismic hazard andimprove public safety.Community colleges serve as the gateway to higher education for large numbers of

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Thomas M. Korman

to use in their assessment of the appropriate mark-up: 1. The company’s office overhead is approximately 2.5% of the project volume in dollars. Proceedings of the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education/Pacific Southwest Conference Copyright © 2015, American Society for Engineering Education 65 2. The company really needs the work right now, but there are three other bidding opportunities that look promising in the next three weeks. 3. The project duration is 24 months, and their firm likes to bring in approximately $10,000/month revenue on the proposed project manager and

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bridget Benson; John Oliver

provide enrichment activities tothose students who mastered the unit’s learning goals while providing corrective activities tostudents who did not achieve mastery of the material. After performing corrective activities,students can then take another formative assessment that covers the same concepts and skills asthe first, but includes slightly different problems or questions. This second assessment verifieswhether or not the corrective activities helped students overcome their learning difficulties andoffers students a second chance at showing mastery of the learning goals5. Figure 1 illustratesthis instructional sequence. Figure 1: Bloom's Mastery Learning Instructional Sequence5Although mastery learning schemes have

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Thais da C. L. Alves

to promote student engagement withstudent chapters. The activities developed by the NECA student chapter at San Diego StateUniversity are used as a baseline for the discussion.Student chapters, industry support, and professional engagementThe Grand Challenges for Engineering defined by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE2012)1 include items such as make solar energy economical, restore and improve urbaninfrastructure, and advance personal learning. In this context, the work of NECA studentchapters and their participation in the Green Energy Challenge (GEC)2, the major competitionthese chapters are encouraged to participate in, provide students with an opportunity to addressissues related to the three challenges identified above

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bhaskar R. Sinha; Pradip P. Dey; Gordon W. Romney; Mohammad N. Amin; Debra A. Bowen

students who work with the instructor andsupervisors who are faculty members. In most instances the instructor and the supervisor are thesame. Also, as a project is defined there will be an end-user client who has agreed to sponsor theproject and actively participate in the development life-cycle. At the end of the three-monthduration, a working prototype is presented to a panel and the sponsor, and a formal report isdelivered.During these three months, the team meets with the instructor twice a week and with the end-user client as required in an agile development environment that consists of five phases:1. Proposal: The team makes a short informal presentation of the needs of a prospective client and proposed project in the first week. Other

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jim Helbling; Angela Beck

faculty members deliver the content of a single course, sharing the burden ofcourse preparation, lecture, in-class tasks, and assessment 1, 2. One purpose of team-teaching isto supplement gaps in student education (typically gaps in math or communication or ethics or Proceedings of the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Conference Copyright © 2015, American Society for Engineering Education 134leadership skills); this supplementation is accomplished not by tutoring or by external labs but byintegrating the supplemental instruction directly into a specific course content. By

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

David F. Hosterman; Wblesther Gama; Andrew Vitaljic; Jonathan H. Poluan; Ali A. Ballout; Yong X Gan; James L. Smith; Jimmie C. Oxley

. Meanwhile, structuring positive interdependence of students is emphasized. Themain content includes: (1) low cost, scalable manufacturing process leading to variousnanomaterials research, (2) nanomaterials property characterization, and (3) cooperative learningeffectiveness evaluation. The paper addresses fundamental issues including how to allowundergraduate students learning better through cooperative learning approach, how to effectivelydevelop workforce in several priority fields in this country such as advanced manufacturing andnanotechnology, and how to end social inequality in engineering education and practice. Theresearch work focuses on low cost, scalable nanomanufacturing. Nanoporous materials,electrospun nanofibers, and nanoparticles